When looking at the frightful daily tally of new COVID-19 cases, it’s understandable that the concentration has been on states at the top of all the charts. Florida has already logged over 10,000 new cases and 95 deaths on Saturday—and it’s early. Yesterday, the United States topped 71,000 cases, with a marked increase in deaths trailing, predictably, behind the spike in cases that began three weeks ago.
But way down at the bottom of many lists is another entry that does not get talked about too often—the U. S. military. With a total of 1.3 million active duty members, and with families and dependents on bases around the world, the military is larger than the population of a dozen states. Unfortunately, it also has a number of COVID-19 cases that’s higher than even more states—and the rate at which it’s growing would put the military near the top of the list no matter how it’s calculated. That’s not just a concern for the effectiveness of the U. S. military, it’s becoming a concern for other nations where those service members are stationed.
Captain Brett Crozier, was relieved of his command over the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt when he expressed concern over the growing number of COVID-19 cases on the ship back in March. Crozier had good reason for his concern. The thousands of Naval personnel on a vessel the size of the Roosevelt are tightly packed for much of the day. Its hard to practice social distancing when sleeping in ranks 18” apart. The ship ended up spending the next two months in Guam, and when it finally sailed at the end of May, it left 1,800 sailors behind in quarantine.
The Roosevelt is just one of many ships, bases, and remote postings where military personnel have almost no means of keeping distant from their colleagues. Sleeping in barracks and participating in group activities is a key aspect of military training and the ongoing experience for many in the ranks. And it’s a big factor why, as The Military Times reports, cases in the military are growing at twice the national average. Military cases of COVID-19 are up by a third in just the last ten days, with over 1,600 cases on Friday alone. And while the 41 deaths logged by the military may seem low, there’s still another tally to consider. VA hospitals log both cases and fatalities separately from the active military. The VA has recorded 1,776 deaths as of Friday.
The rapid spread of cases in the military, and the apparent inability to bring outbreaks under control, is raising alarm outside of bases. As NBC News reports, the governor of Okinawa in Japan is demanding to know how dozens of Marines on bases in that location came to be infected by COVID-19.
Despite a relatively low rate of testing and few official restrictions, Japan has had notable success in fighting COVID-19. That success has mostly been attributed to widespread use of face masks and a pre-existent dedication to cleanliness in Japanese culture. In fact, the entire 126 million population of Japan has seen a total of 20,000 cases of COVID-19, well below the number seen in the U. S. military that is only 1% of Japan’s size. Now the 50,000 U. S. troops stationed in Japan—already generating friction with the local population due to concerns over crime and cultural insensitivity—are viewed as a potential source of disease.
The failure of the military to take measures to control the spread of COVID-19 doesn’t just risk the health and lives of service members, and threaten to make bases unwelcome around the world, it also directly impacts the ability of the military to do its job. Defense officials are attributing the recent rise in military cases both to, wait for it … increased testing. And are “expressing faith that local commanders are enforcing protective measures.” But no one seems to be enforcing these measures. Certainly there appears to be no public case of a military commander removed for failing to enforce social distancing.
When Captain Crozier was relieved, part of the justification was concern of how his speaking up might let unfriendly nations know that one of the biggest weapons in the U. S. arsenal had been weakened by disease. But the Pentagon seems intent on allowing the entire military to fall into a morass of illness — and it’s obvious to everyone.
